NPR recently covered the 50th annual Newport Folk Festival, and now you can listen to many of the performances online.  (Thank you, NPR!)

To browse a list of performances, head to NPR’s Folk at Newport home page, and you’ll find the list in the left column.

Enjoy performances from relative folk newbies, such as Iron and Wine, The Decemberists (Colin Meloy of The Decemberists in photo at left), The Avett Brothers, Neko Case and Gillian Welch.  And don’t miss some classics, such as Judy Collins, Joan Baez (Mom, are you reading this?!), Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Pete Seeger.

Finally, as if the performances weren’t enough, you can download for FREE a 12-song “Music at Newport” sampler, which features songs by some of the artisits I listed above.  Again, thank you, NPR.

Enjoy, and let me know which performance you enjoyed most.

I’m sitting shirtless (fan yourself) on my patio, laptop out, working (sort of), dodging bumble bees and listening to NPR’s Mountain Stage concerts.  Right now I’m listening to Neko Case’s concert, and NPR’s interview with her.

“You’re the one that I still miss.”  -Neko Case

Other great Mountain Stage concerts I’ve listened to:  Martin Sexton and Crooked Fingers.

These are short (about 5 songs), intimate concerts … I’m LOVING them.  Enjoy.

Last Saturday night my roommate Randy and I experienced Bob Schneider in concert at the Double Door in Chicago’s artsy, hipster-filled Wicker Park neighborhood.

Bob kicked off the show with a hilarious, evocative song about the Hulk — and the party rolled on from there!

Bob is from Austin, Texas, and is legendary in those parts.  He should be legendary in all parts … the man is mega talented and INCREDIBLE live.  (Kathy and Greg, have you guys seen him yet?)

Here’s a brief photo journey of our night.  (I took these photos with my cell phone camera.)

Oh, but first, here’s some of Bob’s music … so you can listen as you view photos.

Heading to the show, Chicago’s skyline in the background.  Should I be taking photos while I drive?!

A mural promoting Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The Wicker Park neighborhood is also known as the bicycle neighborhood.  It’s hip to pedal.

The Double Door is across the street from the Damen Blue Line stop.

And whatta ya know, here’s the Blue Line train roarin’ through.

Now this is the Blue Line I wanna ride, the Blue Line pub.

Public art in Wicker Park … it’s fun.  Here’s Rod Blagojevich running for his life.

Randy and his warm-fuzzy musician friends.

Here’s perhaps the most exciting sign I saw all night.

Wait, how’d my bedroom get mixed up in these photos?!?!

We finally made it to the Double Door.

Aren’t marquees beautiful?

Once inside the Double Door, Randy began strutting his stuff.

Randy can’t wait for Bob to come on … but the disco ball is keeping him happy.

Ahhhh … BOB.

Yep, you can listen to all the songs on Ben’s iLike page.  Enjoy!  “Selfless, Cold and Composed” and “Magic” are simply amazing.

Ben is so … everything (e.g., a genius, a smart ass, a serial husband, etc.).  He’s also a risk taker.  And he’s doing it again — he’s working on a unique project:  an a capella album called Ben Folds Presents:  University A Capella!, which will be released April 28 (that’s right, soon!).

(As a side note:  I’d love to be Ben’s best friend for a year, see how it goes.  Maybe all I really want is to conduct a really lengthy interview with him, perhaps over a weekend, and hear all his stories and philosophies and f-bombs.  Maybe all I really want is to grab a grilled cheese sandwich with him over lunch at some diner in Nashville, near Ben’s home, and talk shit about all kinds of shit, and laugh.)

Many months ago, Ben supposedly discovered on YouTube that some university a capella groups were covering his songs.  He thought some of the arrangements and performances were brilliant, and he decided to produce an album that featured the best groups.

Ben received over 200 submissions from university a capella groups across the country.  You can listen to most of the submissions on YouTube.  Many are fantastic, and very entertaining!

Out of all those submissions, Ben chose fifteen groups to feature on his album.

For the inside scoop about this project, read Ben’s blog post and listen to a recent interview with Ben on WYNC.

Below I’ve included two of my favorite performances; both will be featured on Ben’s album.  The first is from an a capella group called Voices in Your Head, from the University of Chicago.  Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and About a Boy, praised Voices in Your Head’s version of the Ben Folds Five song “Magic.”

The second performance I’ve included below is from a group called Sacramento State Jazz Singers, from, um, Sacramento State.  Brilliant performance, and some really cute girls.  I especially like the way the one girl sings the word “shit” with such feeling.  Enjoy!  I’d love to hear what you think.

I recently discovered an amazing site called Concert Vault, which enables you to listen to archived concerts.  This past weekend I listened to a Merle Haggard concert from 1982 — it was (and I’m a little hesitant to say this) magical.

There are thousands of concerts to choose from, and these are concerts from big-time artists, such as:  The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Ray Charles, 10,000 Maniacs, Joan Baez, U2, and Wet Willie (who?!).  View the huge list of artists.

Enjoy!

Temporary People, Joseph Arthur’s latest CD, is peppier and poppier than usual — and the entire album is fantastic!  On Daytrotter.com, you can listen to and download (legally) several songs from the new album.

Arthur, who’s based in Brooklyn, is a song-writing machine and cranks out more music than any artist I know.  This past year he put out four EPs and one full-length album (Temporary People).  Check out his discography.

(Incidentally, this past year I ate Cheetos and every once in a while got off the couch to go surfing.)

Here are some other Joseph Arthur highlights:

+ Arthur happens to be a painter, too, and fairly recently opened his own gallery called Museum of Modern Arthur (MOMAR), located in Brooklyn.  I like his paintings — they’re raw, and sometimes dark and disturbing.

+ Arthur paints during his concerts.  He sings and paints and plays guitar and paints and sings and paints.  It’s really compelling.  If you want to watch him draw and paint, check out the video for “She Paints Me Gold.”

+ Some good folks recently made a documentary about Arthur called You Are Free.  The film documents the first show of Arthur’s 2005 tour and features a blend of music, art and drama.  It premiered to favorable reviews at Pop Montreal 2008 and will be shown in March at Canadian Music Week in Toronto.  Meanwhile, check out the trailer.  It looks good!  I can’t wait to see it.

+ To listen to more full-length songs, check out Arthur’s MySpace page.

RED Wire is a new digital music magazine designed to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.  It costs just $5 for a monthly subscription, and half of your money pays for medicine to help AIDS victims survive.  Many big-time artists (such as U2, Sheryl Crow and Coldplay) are supporting RED Wire.  Joseph Arthur is involved, too.

I think this is a fun, creative way to make a difference in the battle against AIDS.  I’m curious to see how this RED Wire experiment goes.

I recently stumbled upon the band Mates of State (in photo at left) and up-and-coming singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch.

Mates of State’s music is fun, creative, smart and poppy — and I can’t stop listening to this husband and wife duo! Ahhhhhhhh! To listen, head to their MySpace page.

A couple weeks ago I saw Alexi Murdoch open for Alanis Morissette.  Murdoch’s music is sparse, dark, smart and haunting folk-blues.  To listen, head to his MySpace page.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Ben Folds Five, 1999

To kick off MySpace’s new concert series called “Front to Back,” Ben Folds Five recently reunited to play a concert in Chapel Hill, NC, where the band got its start in the 90’s.

The band performed, front to back, their album “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.” It’s a brilliant album (though it was underappreciated by many when it was released in 1999).

You can watch the entire show — which is AMAZING! — on MySpace.

The show includes interviews with each band member, musicians (such as Ben Lee) who were influenced by the band, and others.

Last night I watched the entire show TWICE, and sang all the lyrics and played air piano on a pillow. I was sweating. I’m surprised my neighbors didn’t come over to join me (or, more realistically, have me arrested).

Enjoy!